War of Hearts

Chapter 12: The Demon In Me

Magnus was running out of magic again. Every day, for the last nine days, they've made him work on that damn portal until he hit the point of exhaustion. He was doing his best, but that didn't seem to be enough. He had no idea how much longer it would take him to finish the job and the uncertainty only made it worse.

He couldn't stand being in the same room with Valentine after what he'd made him do. Thankfully, that didn't happen often. Valentine was busy creating new Shadowhunters and his dedication had certainly been rewarded – his army had grown to over 800 members by now. Valentine wasn't going to wait much longer to attack the Shadow World and Magnus knew he had to accelerate his work on the portal if he wanted to stop him.

And he wanted to stop him so badly. Magnus's blood was boiling with vengeance and at the end of each day, when he was locked up in his magic proofed cell, he couldn't stop thinking about ways of defeating him. The scheming was what kept him going day after day.

He did have one idea. A bold move that, if carried out successfully, could destroy everything Valentine had. But Magnus still had to finish the portal first.

He crashed on the floor and leaned on the rocky wall, breathing heavily as sweat ran down his forehead. He just needed to slow down for a minute, catch his breath...

"Day's not over yet, warlock," one of the Shadowhunters informed him sharply. Magnus closed his eyes to suppress the irritation he felt towards all the Shadowhunters who stood as guards while he worked. Valentine had made clear instructions about never leaving him alone while he was working in the only chamber in the labyrinth of caves where magic worked. It was small and tight, a bit claustrophobic, but after nine days Magnus got used to it. His clothes, on the other hand, were becoming filthy as layers of dirt accumulated on them. On his second day here, Valentine had offered him new and boring clothes which Magnus rejected saying that if he was going to die here, he will - at least - do it with style.

"You're lasting less and less every day." The Shadowhunter stepped closer and shook his head in disapproval. "I think Valentine should get rid of you already. You're useless."

"Why don't you tell him that then?" Magnus replied and used the wall behind him as support to get back on his feet. "I'm sure he can't wait to hear his most incompetent soldiers complain about his decisions," He teased the annoying Shadowhunter after facing him.

He saw rage join hatred on the Shadowhunter's face and before he could blink, Magnus felt something wet and thick cover his nose and lips. The Shadowhunter had spat on him.

"Okay. This is not how I imagined getting Shadowhunter saliva on me." Magnus grimaced in disgust and wiped his face clean with his fingers.

Oh God, this blazer is ruined forever, he thought with a knot forming in his stomach as he wiped his fingers on its sleeve. He didn't dare to use magic to clean it up. He couldn't afford to waste any more of his precious energy.

The Shadowhunter just scowled at him and finally stepped away. The other eight Shadowhunters received him with high fives and pats on the shoulder for his undignified move. Magnus rolled his eyes and, now that he has recovered a bit of magic, turned back to work on the portal, which was only a fist sized blue ball floating a few inches above the ground. But the person standing next to the ball distracted him completely.

Ragnor Fell, holding a cup of tea so casually like he was just attending one of Magnus's fun tea parties.

Oh, for the love of the Angel... What is he doing here!?

"Go away," Magnus murmured so only Ragnor could hear him. "I can't waste my time on you!"

"It's nice to see you too, buddy!" Ragnor decided to ignore the hostility in Magnus's voice and smiled at him enthusiastically. "I thought you could use a friendly face around here," he said and took a sip of tea.